Quote:
Originally Posted by kermitology
I'll believe it when I see it. This city is always trying to plan for the next 30 years even though we have no idea what the city needs in the next 5 years. Planners already have a hard enough time standing up to developers, and most of those funds are related to application fees are they not?
My worry is that the developers will use this as a hook to steamroll proper planning and city design. The existing planners definitely see it that way.
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Fair enough, when the idea came forward for developer-funded ASPs, there was a lot of concern about the implications.
The planning system is undergoing a complete overhaul right now. So we have to see this change in the context of what will be, not the way things have been done in the past. If nothing in our planning system changed - yes this could be a problematic shift in policy.
Transforming Planning is probably the single biggest change happening at the City right now - and one of the Mayor's top 3 priorities. We've been doing a lot of work through ImagineCalgary talking about
why we needed to grow differently. Plan It was about
what our city should look like. Growth Management was about
when and
where we should grow. Transforming Planning is the
how. How do our processes, our regulations, our structure, our culture function to ensure we get the outcomes we're looking for.
http://www.calgary.ca/PDA/Pages/Tran...0Planning.aspx
The hope is that it will be a system that functions much better for everyone - particularly the planning staff at the City, who currently work in a pretty stifling and adversarial system. Just look at the term you used - "standing up to developers". That's not what it should be about -an us vs. them mentality. It needs to become far more collaborative and productive. The system evolved to the way it is now for a lot of different and valid reasons, but now's the time to step back and rethink it given our new goals as a city. The people who work in the planning department are great - but we need to re-invent the system they work in - and that's happening right now.